Informal approach in formal environment

Icelanders refer to the service they provide as "floating youth work," which is a type of work where the work is moved to places where young people are located. In Slovakia and Slovenia, they refer to work in the natural environment of young people, and in Slovakia, the term low-threshold programs is used. English translates this as "street-based youth work" or "open youth club." When youth workers decide to enter a formal environment, there is often a conflict between the low-threshold/informal approach and the performance-oriented environment of the school, where situations must be resolved, culprits punished, and the subject matter mastered. In Slovenia, a survey revealed a contradiction between what is in the system and what is outside the system in Slovenian focus groups, with this contradiction being perceived primarily as a contradiction between voluntariness and obligation. They tended to consider their services as existing outside the system. Young people can, but do not have to, attend a youth club, but they must attend school. This also shows the specificity of who young people contact first – the survey shows that in clubs they are more likely to approach youth workers, but in schools they are less likely to approach school counselors and more likely to approach class teachers.